In such a slice cutting machine, in particular in automatically operated slice cutting machines for strand-shaped food products, such as sausages, ham, salmon, cheese, etc., the product to be cut is moved against the cutting blade in order to separate the slices by cutting.
The drive of the cutting device is performed by a drive motor, which is normally enclosed by the machine housing, in order to protect it against splash water and dirt as well as to provide mechanical security against intervention from the outside.
The separated slices then reach the storage region, either automatically or by means of a storage device, such as a motorized chain rack. In the storage region, the slices are deposited on the tray.
The tray is used for receiving the separated slices. The tray may also be connected to a weighing device, so that the weight of the slices, and thus the total amount cut may be directly detected.
In particular in the food sector, particularly high requirements exist for ensuring hygiene.
Thus a regular thorough cleaning of the slice cutting machine and in particular of the tray is necessary. To this end, the tray may be moved into a removal position. In this removal position, the tray may be removed for cleaning purposes.
After cleaning is completed, the tray is again mounted on the slice cutting machine, so that further slices may subsequently be separated and collected on the tray.
Such a generic slice cutting machine is disclosed in DE 10 2014 113 505 A1.
In this machine, a tray is provided with a rotational axis, so that the tray may be rotated into a vertical removal position.
In order to be removed, the tray has initially to be rotated into the vertical removal position, and subsequently laterally displaced along the rotational axis out of a coupling device for coupling the tray to the rest of the slice cutting machine.
An easier removal and return of the tray would be desirable. Often, because of a lack of available space, it is difficult for example to tilt the tray into a vertical position and to displace it laterally. During tilting into the vertical position, it may also occur that cutting residues fall or slide off from the tray, for example behind or beside the rest of the slice cutting machine, so that additional cleaning is then required.
It has also been shown that in such a slice cutting machine of the prior art, the coupling device itself is relatively sharply angled and thus is difficult to clean.
In such a prior art slice cutting machine, considerable complexity and loss of convenience has to be taken into account, in order to regularly ensure the required hygiene, in particular of the tray.